SEO experts: Need advice. Got a question.

Hey.

I'll use BHW name as an example. I have a forum with domain name black-hat-world.com. It is currently ranking on first page for a few KWs. I also have the domain blackhatworld.com which is just collecting dust in my domain account. Like most of you, I would prefer to run the forum under the domain blackhatworld.com (without hyphens) instead of black-hat-world.com.

So if I put the forum under blackhatworld.com and redirect black-hat-world.com to blackhatworld.com - what will happen?

1) What will happen to the Alexa rank of black-hat-world.com? Will it be passed onto blackhatworld.com?
2) What will happen to the Google rankings (SERPs) of black-hat-world.com? Will blackhatworld.com take the black-hat-world.com's spots in SERPs?

Question 2 is very important and the determining factor in whether I will go ahead with this or not. Obviously, if the SERPs don't get replaced then only an idiot would go ahead with this. So I need to be sure before I do this.

Whats your take on this, SEO experts?

SilverKnight said:

1) What will happen to the Alexa rank of black-hat-world.com? Will it be passed onto blackhatworld.com?
2) What will happen to the Google rankings (SERPs) of black-hat-world.com? Will blackhatworld.com take the black-hat-world.com's spots in SERPs?

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1. Alexa rank will slowly drop on the black-hat-world.com. Nope, it won't be passed onto the blackhatworld.com. You don't have to worry about it as Alexa rank has nothing to do with SEO.
2. Yeah, blackhatworld.com will replace the SERPs of black-hat-world.com for its keywords.

It's about the keywords, instead of the domain.

And density of backlinks will affect your SERP.

This is my personal opinion

FBGuru said:

1. Alexa rank will slowly drop on the black-hat-world.com. Nope, it won't be passed onto the blackhatworld.com. You don't have to worry about it as Alexa rank has nothing to do with SEO.
2. Yeah, blackhatworld.com will replace the SERPs of black-hat-world.com for its keywords.

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1) Yep I know Alexa has nothing to do with SEO. But Alexa rank means something to my advertisers so I don't it to be affected. But I believe, since all traffic will be redirected to blackhatworld.com, the Alexa will get back to what it was within a month or so.

2) Are you 100% sure about this? Will it permanently replace the SERPs? I asked this question to a SEO provider and his reply was that it will temporarily replace the SERPs and over time the SERPs will fall. But you are saying that as long as black-hat-world.com stays redirected, I don't have to worry about losing SERPs, right?

Jobdollarr said:

It's about the keywords, instead of the domain.

And density of backlinks will affect your SERP.

This is my personal opinion

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, I didn't quite understand your reply.

It's about the keywords man, also my personal opinion

afaik, alexa will be transferred slowly and 301'ed domain will get all juice of old domain and hence will rank.

SilverKnight said:

1) Yep I know Alexa has nothing to do with SEO. But Alexa rank means something to my advertisers so I don't it to be affected. But I believe, since all traffic will be redirected to blackhatworld.com, the Alexa will get back to what it was within a month or so.

2) Are you 100% sure about this? Will it permanently replace the SERPs? I asked this question to a SEO provider and his reply was that it will temporarily replace the SERPs and over time the SERPs will fall. But you are saying that as long as black-hat-world.com stays redirected, I don't have to worry about losing SERPs, right?

Click to expand...

1. Yes it should.

2. Yes, it will replace the SERPs as long as the redirect is there. I believe the "SEO provider" is talking about redirecting a penalized domain to a new domain. That's when you regain the rankings and lose the ranks slowly. If black-hat-world.com is not penalized, you won't lose any SERPs for blackhatworld.com.

Hmmm #2 is tricky because according to Moz 90% - 99% link juice is passed in 301 redirects BUT if you search around you will also find that people say 301 redirects lose their link juice over time.

Im not 100% on this but after a quick search it seems possible 301's lose power over time.

Do more research of your own and then decide from there.

Good Luck OP

I've had nothing but bad experiences when 301 re-directing. I've lost my rank on the serps after doing a 301.

I would highly recommend not doing that. I decided to rebrand my IM site and lost 60% of my visitors doing this even with 301s in place.

If you increase the number of backlinks for keyword: black-hate-wolrd.

It will stand alone with the search: black-hate-world

not blackhateworld

So there will be a keyword suggestion black-hate-world

Can I get a few more replies in this thread? I want to make an informed decision and do not want to take the risk with my ranked domain.